“Will the Digital India Act 2024 Change The Internet Forever?”

Author: Priyadarshini Chakraborty, Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College (University Of Calcutta)

Did you know about this fact that India is a hub of more than 850 million internet users, making it the world's 2nd largest population in the world as a whole? The saddest part of all about the world's second-largest internet-using country is that its digital ecosystem, even now, is being legislated with the Information Technology Act,2000, a decade-old Act born in the dial-up era. In the fast-changing contemporary world, especially with fast and evolving development in the technology area. Rapid advancements in AI, deep fakes, metaverse, Open AI, and other technological advancements, the old Act in reality is not sufficient to tender strict protection.

The Digital India Act, 2024, promises to be a game changer in this contemporary change of the entire Digital World. It is aimed at modernising India’s old Information Technology Act,2000, and thereby modernising it with new provisions that tender the need to protect the entire fast and rapidly changing Digital World by imposing user rights and increasing accountability on various digital platforms. The only question lies with the public at the front: whether digital democracy will pave the way for digital control?

The dire need for new Digital law roots down to several multiple reasons and concerns. The Information Technology Act,2000 lacks several provisions to cater solutions to the contemporary technological problems like misuse of AI data, breach of online data and the spread of online misinformation. The increasing growth of digital intermediaries and their control over commerce and the flow of information has raised growing concerns and the need for accountability. More importantly, India has witnessed in the past few years an increasing growth of cyberattacks, but the present laws lack the efficiency to tackle such threats. It is a fact that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP)Act, 2023 has had a considerable effect in protecting personal data, but there lies a huge insufficiency still in providing a broader regulatory aspect of emerging fast technologies, cybersecurity and non-personal data.

The Digital India Act proposes various transformative provisions. The Act envisions a greater online platform to follow more strict rules and regulations in handling sensitive data and its variability to the public user's grievances and feedback. The best part about the Act is that some rights belong to its users, like the right to be forgotten, freedom, free speech and expression(subject to some limitations), protection from any biased computer programmes, etc. Making it mandatory for the top companies to be fair, just and transparent with their sensitive user data. In its role of cybersecurity and protection, it enables companies as well as big platforms to report any kind of data breaches to the government, follow strict safety rules and be a part of monitoring any future cyber threats and risks.

If drafted properly with the necessary changes as proposed in its bill, the DIA  can become a future handmade law that matches today’s tech world and builds on public trust. It can considerably boost India’s economy by bringing in more investors from various techs like Fintech, Edtech and even Healthtech. In a summary, the Act contains various provisions that help the users with several variable rights, helping to create a safer and fairer technological world with the rapid reporting of increasing crimes all over the Technological world. It can also make India stronger against any terrorist cyberattacks or any other forms of cyber threats with its better legal tools.

No matter what effect is put to build a strong legislation, there always lies a dark reality of various serious concerns. If the entire legislation is not thoroughly checked, debated in the parliament and understood by the public at large, there lies greater fear for this democratic country of granting access to the government of the citizens ' minute-to-minute personal data, leading to more surveillance and censorship.  There are some parts of the law which might appear vague, and it would be unjust, unfair to enforce such an Act on the people. Moreover, there might be several startups that could find it hard enough to cope with the new rules and regulations, and thereby slow down innovation, which ultimately causes slow business in the country following a vicious cycle of affecting the economy badly.

To make sure that the entire Legislation is an absolute success, the government must involve more people, like tech experts, lawyers, people having extensive knowledge regarding this field and civil society. While shaping the new rules, small businesses like startups should be kept in mind so that they are not affected by the rules of big tech companies. It should be reviewed regularly to keep up with the fast-changing technological world.

Indeed, the DIA has vast potential to redefine India’s Digital World for both better and worse. Suppose it is made and crafted with transparency, expert inputs and suggestions and a clear vision to help develop India into an innovative technological landscape. In that case, it can make India a leading country with such a defined technological law in the entire global world. But if any rushed decisions with proper interpretation are made, it can become dangerous by granting absolute rights of the people to the Government, thereby infringing on personal rights and liberty. As we await its final form, we must ask ourselves, “ Are we building an internet that empowers citizens or one that controls?”

1. Press Information Bureau, Digital India Act to Replace IT Act, 2000, (Mar. 9, 2023), https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1905389.

2. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), Draft Digital India Bill: Stakeholder Consultation, (2023),

  https://www.meity.gov.in.

3. Ministry of Law and Justice, The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, No. 22 of 2023, https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/bills_parliament/2023/DPDP_Act_2023.pdf.